Michael Kane looks on during a preliminary hearing at Van Nuys Municipal Court February 26, 2014. Kane, a former LAUSD teacher, is accused of stabbing his estranged wife to death on a street outside her friend’s West Hills home.(Andy Holzman/Los Angeles Daily News)

Van Nuys >> A former Los Angeles Unified elementary teacher accused of fatally stabbing his estranged wife last June outside a West Hills home was held to answer Wednesday on murder and other related charges.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Leslie A. Dunn found that there is sufficient evidence against Michael Rodney Kane, 47, of West Hills to proceed to trial on charges of murder in the death of his wife and the mother of his two young children, Michelle Ann Kane, 43, of Canoga Park. He will also answer to charges of committing burglary with a person present, making criminal threats and disobeying a domestic relations court order.

Kane is set to be arraigned March 14.

“The picture that is starting to come out is that Mr. Kane was having substantial mental health issues” and was going downhill, attorney Christopher C. Chaney, who is representing the defendant, said after Wednesday’s preliminary hearing at Van Nuys Courthouse. “There are many issues. It will take awhile to flush out and be able to bring it before the court. I think it will change the posture of the case.”

Two key witnesses for prosecutors, West Hills couple Howard and Michele Levin who were long-time friends of Michelle Kane, took the stand during Wednesday’s preliminary hearing.

When the knock came to Howard Levin’s home last year on the morning of June 15, he said he looked through the peephole and saw Michael Kane’s “smiling face.”

Michelle Kane had spent the night with the Levins at their West Hills home after she had received repeated phone calls from her husband — despite a court restraining order. Michelle Kane’s Canoga Park home had also been vandalized the day before and she had suspected her husband did it and had told police. But Levin said he opened his door and closed it behind him to speak to Michael Kane.

“He was so calm; he was so relaxed,” Levin recalled from the stand. “He said, ‘I’ve always considered you and Michele good friends; that’s the first thing I want to tell you.’ He wasn’t being abrasive, argumentative … He shows up, compliments me and says he’s going to stop by and check on the well-being of his kids.”

Howard Levin said he refused to let Michael Kane inside the house to see his wife, but Kane grabbed the door handle and “knocked me down” like a “rag doll.”

Levin said he got up, ran after Kane and then saw him either punching or stabbing Michelle Kane in an underhanded motion with his hand.

Levin said he approached Michael Kane from behind, put him in a bear hug and brought him down to the floor. When they were wrestling on the ground, Levin said he saw the knife out of the corner of his eye and tried to wrestle it away from Kane. Levin felt himself get cut on his hand and was soon overpowered by Kane, who ran after his wife and Michele Levin in the street.

Michele Levin, who befriended Michelle Kane nearly 20 years ago, said she and her injured friend had run out the front door yelling for help. Michele Levin went across the street and asked a neighbor to call 9-1-1.

Michele Levin went to stand with her friend who was on the grass of that property when Michael Kane came running back out. Before she realized what was happening, Michael Kane had straddled his wife and was “stabbing her just like a monster all over,” she said. When asked how many times, she said, “so many that I couldn’t count.”

In court Wednesday, Kane sat calmly in an orange jumpsuit next to his attorney, occasionally taking notes on a yellow note pad. A graduate of UCLA, Kane began working for LAUSD as a substitute teacher in October 1997, and was hired full-time a year later. He taught at Carthay Center and Bassett Street elementary schools before being assigned in 2008 to Nestle Avenue Elementary in Tarzana.

Michelle Kane was stabbed 41 times with a sharp object, seven of those wounds were fatal, according to a coroner’s official who testified Wednesday.

The victim had gone to the LAPD’s Topanga Station on June 14 to report that her husband — the two were separated at the time — had violated a temporary restraining order.

Los Angeles Police Department Detective David Peteque testified Wednesday that Michelle Kane had reported to police officers a threatening phone message he had left on her cellphone.

The message, Peteque said, was something like “‘the beast is hungry. I need to feed the beast. I made my peace with God. Today may be your day. It may be a week from now.’ Basically, your time is coming.”

Brenda Gazzar is a multilingual multimedia reporter who has worked for a variety of news outlets in California and in the Middle East since 2000. She has covered a range of issues, including breaking news, immigration, law and order, race, religion and gender issues, politics, human interest stories and education. Besides the Los Angeles Daily News and its sister papers, her work has been published by Reuters, the Denver Post, Ms. Magazine, the Jerusalem Post, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, The Cairo Times and others. Brenda speaks Spanish, Hebrew and intermediate Arabic and is the recipient of national, state and regional awards, including a National Headliners Award and one from the Associated Press News Executives' Council. She holds a dual master's degree in Communications/Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

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